Gulls & Swans

Not too long ago, Salty posted a picture of a ring-billed gull he saw in Florida. Since then, I've been meaning to take a closer look at the group of gulls that hangs out in the parking lot of the local grocery store.

Lo and behold, they're ring-billed gulls. I believe we are just about as far inland as these guys go in winter.

This evening, as we were working in the yard, I noticed a long dispersed column of gulls flying overhead. They were moving from the northeast to the southwest. I kept an eye on the birds for more than 15 minutes, and there stream of gulls still had no end in sight. I imagine several thousand were in the group, ultimately.

Over the last week, I've noticed small and large groups of tundra swans taking the same flight path, sometimes in the morning and always in the hour or so before dusk. This last shot was taken from our backyard.